Regenerative Health: Discover Your Metabolic Type and Renew Your Liver for Life

Dietician Kirkpatrick and gastroenterologist Hanouneh follow up their 2017 collaboration, Skinny Liver, with a helpful guide for improving liver health. According to the authors, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, in which eating lots of added sugars or simple carbs leads to fat buildup in the organ, affects “one in four people worldwide” but can be combatted with dietary and lifestyle changes. Kirkpatrick and Hanouneh outline four metabolic types and tell how each can avoid or reverse fat buildup in the liver. For instance, they recommend lean people with few risk factors follow a modified Mediterranean diet, which involves eating leafy greens and whole grains while limiting intake of red meat and sweets. For “non-lean” people with such risk factors as type 2 diabetes, the authors suggest a low-carb plan that entails cutting out pasta, bread, and sugar and loading up on such protein-rich foods as almonds and flaxseeds. The background on liver disease is informative without getting technical, and meal suggestions (many of which are accompanied by recipes) for each plan will help readers implement the advice (those on the moderate-carb plan might consider starting off their day with sweet potato hash, while low-carb dieters can choose from spicy pulled chicken or vegetarian lasagna for dinner). It amounts to a sound dietary program for helping out the liver. Agent: Bonnie Solow, Solow Literary. (Feb.)